The case for rehab tax credits

Fine editorials in the Syracuse Post-Standard and the Schenectady Daily Gazette lay out the reasons the Governor should sign the bill to enhance the NYS Rehabilitation Tax Credit as a wise investment in strengthening communities across the state.

In some ways, this is a difficult time to advocate for any type of tax credit, but on the other hand, this is the time when it's needed the most. Similar programs in other states have demonstrated impressive returns, in the form of jobs, investment, tax revenues, and revitalization in communities that badly need it. Specifically targeted to historic buildings in economically struggling areas, this is a program that encourages investment where it makes the most sense: our communities' cores, where the infrastructure already exists, where reuse of existing resources is inherently green, and where we can avert the negative impacts of new development elsewhere.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Need a neck brace yet?

Well, the Renaissance Square project just keeps getting more and more convoluted as days go on. If you've been following along at home, you've likely suffered whiplash from all the back and forth between Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy and RGRTA Chief Mark Aesch.

(If you need to get caught up on the Ren Square happenings, here are the latest pieces from CITY Newspaper and the Democrat and Chronicle.)

Many have asked us here at Landmark what we're doing in this process. In a nutshell, we're not the decision makers. We do, however, stand as we always do, for sound urban planning.

To that end, we've decided to share with you a letter we sent to the Rochester City Council on July 15 outlining our concerns. (You can read the letter in its entirety here.)

As Yogi Berra is oft-quoted, "It's ain't over 'til it's over..." With all of this taxpayer money on the line, and the impact this project will have on the urban fabric of Rochester, we hope once the dust settles that we can move forward with a plan that will be a shining star in Rochester's crown instead of something which tarnishes our glorious city.

posted by Laura Keeney Zavala, Director of Marketing

Senate success for rehab tax credits!

Thank you to all who made calls on behalf of the expansion of the NYS tax credit for rehabilitation of historic properties! The legislation passed the state Senate in the very early hours of July 17 and we hope it will be headed to the Governor's desk for signature very soon.

Daniel Mackay of the Preservation League of New York State notes that "this legislation represents a significant advance for the program, and will allow us to focus our advocacy completely on the issues the NYS Department of Tax & Finance has with credit allocation."

Stay tuned for updates as we hear when the legislation moves ahead - we may need one more round of phone calls!

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Your Action Needed TODAY!

An update from Daniel Mackay at the Preservation League of New York State:

We are making a final push to assure that Senate Bill S.6056 which significantly expands the NYS Rehabilitation Tax Credit programs for commercial and residential historic properties, is on the Senate bill agenda for today’s session. While the Senate passed an earlier version of this tax credit expansion legislation in June before their leadership crisis, passage of this new bill is necessary to match the bill the Assembly passed in late June.

With Senate passage of S.6056 today, the bill can be sent to the Governor for signature.

We are requesting your call to Senate President Malcolm Smith’s office and request that “S.6056 be included on the Senate bill agenda for today’s session” as it represents a critical economic and community development for New York State”: 518-455-2701.

Calls by 1:00 PM would be extremely helpful, but session is expected to continue into the evening, so calls made later today are also worth making.

If you've never made one of these advocacy calls before, now is the time to give it a try! It is painless and takes a minute or less - they simply record your name, sometimes your address, and whether you support or oppose the legislation. That's it! It's important that supporters of this legislation log a lot of calls today so that the Senate can see that there is strong support for economic stimulus through historic preservation and finally get this bill passed. Thanks for your help!

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Indiana Jones....the preservationist?

Interesting article in today's CITY Newspaper about the role archeologists play in preservation. Share your thoughts! - LKZ

Precious Pieces of the Past
by Christine Carrie Fien

Excerpts:
Ewing and his staff bid competitively on jobs throughout the Northeast, guiding clients - often developers or municipalities - through archaeological, architectural, and historical compliance issues.

"The developer foots the bill," Ewing says. "They don't like it, but they have to do it because it's part of their permitting process."

Ewing's team provides archaeological reviews to make sure the history and culture of chosen sites are protected before development begins. The reviews are required for projects that are funded, licensed, or approved by state or federal agencies.

...The goal is to eventually arrive at a recommendation: Does the site have the potential to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Making the list is "a pat on the head," Lanphear says, and it enables the town to apply for grants for the property. There are other benefits, as well.

(Con't here ...but be sure to come back and share your thoughts and experiences on our blog!)

posted by Laura Keeney Zavala, Director of Marketing

So what would you put in the required display windows at a new Rite Aid, anyway?

Here in Rochester, yet another Rite-Aid rises on a key corner, despite noble attempts of the citizenry to thwart it. Yet another chain pharmacy in a city with a declining population, and another in a region with no overall population growth. More chain pharmacies for the same or fewer number of people. Economic development at its highest and best.

This one’s different, though: it’s only about half as ugly as most other Rite-Aids, thanks to some insistence by the City of Rochester that the development adhere to some of its codes and design standards. It is built to the sidewalk, is multi-story (although I hear the second floor is nothing more than a facade), and has display windows at the street level, along the sidewalks. (Check out renderings of this Rochester Rite Aid here)

So I have to admit it’s a slightly better design than most chain pharmacies, many of which look like drive-through mausoleums. But while some might consider the better design a victory for good land use/development planning and design, the Monroe Avenue-Goodman Street Rite Aid in Rochester illuminates another big problem for American communities– the sad decline and devolution of retail, and shopping in this country.

It wasn’t that long ago when cities like Rochester had downtown and neighborhood streets lined with independent businesses, housed in handsome buildings with awnings, and with well-made, locally-made goods and products (The Radio Flyer? The wool sweaters? The work boots? The hot-out-of-oven pies?) displayed proudly in the windows.

So the City of Rochester makes Rite Aid build in display windows. But what on earth would a Rite-Aid PUT in such a window that would make us feel good about shopping there, shopping in general, or walking by the store? Um, let’s see:

New CankerCover Cankersore Patches

A cornucopia of lozenges

Cheap, smelly, out-of-round vinyl toy balls made by cents-per-day laborers in Bangladesh

Pyramid of Rite Aid-brand prune products: pitted fruit and juice (I’m not making this up)

The several large-format malt liquors in stock


You know, the kinds of things that Rite Aid sells. The kinds of things I’m sure would appeal to you, the window shopper, as you stroll down Monroe Avenue in Rochester.

Posted by Evan Lowenstein, coordinator of RochesterCityLiving at the Landmark Society. Evan is also the founder/Director of Green Village Consulting in Rochester (www.greenvillage.us). This blog post originally appeared on the Green Village site.

We need your help today to improve the NYS Rehabilitation Tax Credit!

With all the political developments in Albany recently, you may be wondering what became of the effort to enhance the New York State Rehabilitation Tax Credit. It's been a long and interesting road for this piece of legislation, which passed the NYS Senate in May. Last week a different version of the legislation passed the NYS Assembly - which means it now goes back to the NYS Senate. And as you no doubt know, the Senate has been in a state of turmoil in the past few weeks.

Below is an update from Daniel Mackay at the Preservation League of NYS, who is spearheading efforts to get this legislation passed so that we can finally have a meaningful incentive for historic rehab in our state. The whole piece is interesting, but here is what we need you to do today:

Call the NYS Senate – Senator David Valesky (bill sponsor): 518-455-2838, with the following message: “I support Senate passage of S.6056; please include this legislation on the Senate agenda and pass before the end of session.”

Call Governor Paterson: 518-474-4246, with a request that a message be left for Deputy Secretary Larry Schwartz: “I request the Governor’s support for Senate passage of S.6056 and his subsequent signature on this critically needed rehabilitation stimulus legislation.”

Please make these calls right now, while it's on your mind - the session ends tomorrow and this legislation has to be on the priority agenda. I just called and it literally takes less than a minute per call - they simply record the fact that you called in support of the legislation, and may ask for your name & address.

Here's the full update from Daniel:

I wanted to provide an update as to where efforts to secure expanded NYS Rehabilitation Tax Credit programs stands. A flurry of activity in the last week, resulting in a late-session bill introduction in the Assembly, has reset the legislative agenda and process and our advocacy strategy has changed as well. Your calls to the NYS Senate are critical, along with a call to Governor Paterson’s office. See below for call-in information.

New legislation has been introduced in the Assembly (where it passed early Tuesday morning, June 23^rd). As this legislation no longer matched the bill passed by the Senate in mid-May, new legislation matching the Assembly bill language was introduced in the Senate Tuesday afternoon. These new bills are A.9023 and S.6056 respectively, and the bill language is attached with this email.

The Senate must pass this new bill before it can go to the Governor for signature. Obviously, leadership issues need to be resolved in the NYS Senate before there will be a vote on this bill, but we are hopeful that this bill will be a priority for passage once leadership issues are resolved (an agreement may be reached in the next 48 hours).

This legislation preserves the 20% credit rate, $5 million dollar commercial project cap, and makes essential changes to the residential (owner occupied) rehabilitation program. If signed into law, these changes would represent significant steps forward for this program in New York. Unfortunately, due to concerns raised by the NYS Department of Tax & Finance, language in the original 2009 bill specifying the ability to transfer and allocate credit value within business partnerships was removed.

We are concerned with the impacts of this change and will be requesting a meeting with the Department of Tax & Finance to discuss and resolve their issues with this critical program component. We will need the involvement of developers, syndicators, and other professionals seeking to use the rehabilitation tax credit program to inform this meeting, and would welcome your involvement.

It is important to note, however, that we will not be able to secure any further changes to the current bill – the NYS Assembly has ended their regular legislative session. A.9023/S.6056 is the only bill in play at this time.

As such, we are pushing for Senate passage and the Governor’s signature of the current bill legislation. Although this bill omits the transferability language, these bills upgrade program components across the board, and establish key features of the New York State Tax Credit programs at desired levels. As such, it represents a significant step forward for the NYS credit programs.

Passage of this bill will also allow us to focus our complete advocacy on one program feature – the need to establish a clear and effective credit transferability mechanism in the NYS commercial rehabilitation program. We will renew our efforts to secure this immediately after we have this bill signed into law.

We know you may be frustrated with this incremental approach to policy development regarding New York’s program. However, we hope you will support Senate passage and the Governor’s signature on this current legislation by advocating to secure these initial changes, and then joining us to address the remaining impediment to a robust and catalytic rehabilitation stimulus program in NYS.

Calls to the NYS Senate – Senator David Valesky (bill sponsor): 518-455-2838, with the following message: “I support Senate passage of S.6056; please include this legislation on the Senate agenda and pass before the end of session.”

Calls to Governor Paterson: 518-474-4246, with a request that a message be left for Deputy Secretary Larry Schwartz: “I request the Governor’s support for Senate passage of S.6056 and his subsequent signature on this critically needed rehabilitation stimulus legislation.”

While the NYS Senate has not yet resolved leadership issues, the Senate faces a June 30^th deadline for a number of critical bills (sales tax extenders, among others). As such, it is the hope that our calls, beginning today, secure a place on the priority agenda for S.6056.

Please email me with any questions or concerns (dmackay AT plnys.org). We need your involvement to push this program forward.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

2010 Dozen Distinctive Destinations application now online

From preservationnation.org:

2010 Dozen Distinctive Destinations application is now online: http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/travel/dozen-distinctive-destinations/

The Dozen Distinctive Destinations program recognizes unique cities and towns that are working to preserve their historic character, promote heritage tourism, enhance their community and encourage others to enjoy all they have to offer. Each year since 2000, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has selected 12 destinations across America that offer an authentic visitor experience by combining dynamic downtowns, diverse cultural activities, attractive architecture and a strong commitment to historic preservation, sustainability and revitalization.

Be sure to nominate your unique city or town! Deadline is September 1, 2009

posted by Laura Keeney Zavala, Director of Marketing

Act Now to Support Tax Credits for Sensitive Energy Upgrades

Have you heard about the tax credits available for weatherization? So far, those incentives have only been available for new materials like replacement windows, and therefore aren't available to owners of historic buildings who want to maintain their character.

A piece of legislation is going before Congress tomorrow that can change that. The American Clean Energy and Security Act includes a very important provision, the Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance Program, that allows building owners to get tax credits for sensitive energy upgrades, like window repair and appropriate weatherization.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's Advocacy Center has a site where you can quickly email your Congressperson an automated note in favor of this legislation. I just did it, and it took about 30 seconds! Please act now to support this legislation, as Congress is scheduled to vote on it tomorrow.

For more on appropriate energy upgrades for historic houses, please see our online publication, Rehab Rochester, and the National Park Service's Preservation Brief No. 3, Conserving Energy in Historic Buildings.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services

Why Main Street is Green

Here's a nice piece from Michigan about why characterizing historic Main Street buildings as energy hogs is unfair. Energy performance issues in older buildings typically have to do with the maintenance they've received, rather than the way they were built. Buildings constructed before WWII - in other words, before we began taking cheap energy for granted - incorporated a lot of what we would now call passive energy-conserving features like operable windows, awnings, and transoms designed to bring daylight indoors, but often those features were not maintained or were altered when a reliance on mechanized heating, cooling, and lighting became the norm. Fixing the maintenance issues can improve energy performance, at a fraction of the cost of new construction, replacement windows, or other so-called green solutions that are actually the opposite of sustainable.

And here's another article, also from Michigan, describing the projects of preservation architect Gene Hopkins, who also argues for the environmental benefits of rehabilitating historic downtown buildings. Mr. Hopkins's projects have the full support of the city manager, quoted in the article as saying, "The city does not need any new additional buildings ... We can't afford it and there's no need, so to renovate the existing buildings has been a goal over the last two decades." It helps that Michigan has a state tax credit for rehabilitation of historic buildings, which helps make these projects especially attractive for investors - watch this space for an update on our efforts to enhance New York State's tax credit program.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Director of Preservation Services